What is Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the foundation that allows your pages to be crawled, indexed, and ranked. If that foundation is weak, content and backlinks have diminishing returns.

This checklist is the same workflow we use when auditing WordPress and custom sites for service businesses that need more qualified leads.

1) Indexing and crawlability checks

• Confirm the site is not blocking search engines (robots.txt, noindex, password protection, staging domains)
• Verify the preferred domain and HTTPS canonical version
• Check Google Search Console for Coverage and Pages reports
• Make sure XML sitemap is generated and accessible

2) Site architecture and internal linking

Search engines and users both rely on a clear structure. For agency and service sites, the most common issue is weak service page hierarchy.

• Create dedicated pages for each core service (web development, WordPress, SEO, performance, e-commerce)
• Use descriptive navigation and breadcrumb structure
• Add internal links from blog posts to relevant service pages
• Fix orphan pages and thin pages

3) On-page SEO basics that affect rankings

• Unique title tags and meta descriptions (avoid duplicates)
• One clear H1 per page and logical headings (H2, H3)
• Clean URLs and consistent trailing slash behavior
• Image alt text for key images (do not keyword spam)

4) Core Web Vitals and performance

Performance is both an SEO factor and a conversion factor. We typically target LCP, CLS, and INP improvements first.

• Optimize images (WebP, correct sizing, compression)
• Reduce render-blocking CSS and JavaScript
• Enable caching and CDN where appropriate
• Audit third-party scripts (chat widgets, tag managers, trackers)

5) Redirects, canonicalization, and duplicate content

• Fix redirect chains and loops
• Make sure http to https and www to non-www (or the reverse) is consistent
• Set canonical URLs correctly, especially for paginated and filtered pages
• Clean up low-value tag, author, and archive pages when they do not add value

6) Structured data and local signals (if relevant)

• Add Organization or LocalBusiness schema where appropriate
• Make sure NAP data is consistent (name, address, phone)
• Embed a map and link to Google Business Profile if you serve a local area
• Add FAQ schema on service pages when it matches the content

Common quick wins we see on service business sites

• Missing sitemap submission in Search Console
• Duplicate titles across service pages
• Slow hero images and CLS caused by fonts or sliders
• Too many low-value pages indexed (tags, thin archives)

Need a technical SEO audit done properly?

If you want an audit with prioritized fixes, clear reporting, and implementation support, we can help. Share your website URL and your top 2 target services and we will recommend the fastest path to better rankings and leads.

Contact iDev to book an audit.